There’s not too much to say about the Jets 26-10 win against the Bengals.

New York looked good, but not that good. Cincinnati, for most of the night, looked horrendous (did Marvin Lewis really not challenge a call, because he couldn’t find his red flag, as at least one Bengals reporter alleged *? That can’t be right. I mean, right?). The Jets got some breaks. The Bengals did not. Not that any of this would have mattered, because the Jets are a Super Bowl contender and the Bengals probably will be looking for another coach in abot six weeks or so.

*Afterward, Lewis said he didn't challenge because he knew the ball touched Andre Caldwell before the Jets recovered. Not sure I'm buying it**.

But we have to follow up on the Darrelle Revis-Terrell Owens matchup. You’ll recall that Revis called Owens a slouch in the offseason, and this past week, Owens said Revis was an average cornerback. Just because Owens wasn't completely wrong so far this season, nobody else on earth would have seen Revis in that same light (mostly, because Revis is still the best CB in the league).

Tonight, Owens had the chance to prove that his words were correct. Not surprisingly, he failed miserably, making just three catches for 17 yards (with a long of eight yards).

And, in reality, he kind of pissed off Revis with his “average cornerback” talk.

“All the trash talk leading up to this, I didn’t agree with that,” Revis said on the NFL Network’s postgame show. “When T.O. said all that crap, it stirred me up. I felt like I was disrespected. I really did.”

And as far as the slouch comment? Was that a fair comment?

“At that time, I believe so,” Revis said. “I think everybody saw that last year on the field. He would give up on plays. If the ball wasn’t coming to him, he wasn’t finishing out his route.”

Perhaps at this point we’ll just stop listening to Owens, who is just as irrelevant as the rest of his teammates.

If the NFL were to implement the Thanksgiving game tradition today, no way would the league give the Lions and Cowboys the home game each year. Television has become too significant in today’s NFL – nationally-televised games are gold for clubs. But, tradition is tradition, and there’s some 40 years of it behind Detroit and Dallas playing on America’s favorite Thursday.

The NFL aimed to appease the other 30 teams by implementing a third Thanksgiving game, but unfortunately, it’s on NFL Network, which means most fans don’t get to see it. Thanksgiving tends to be held at an older relative’s house; without any official statistics to cite, we’ll assume that the older someone is, the less likely it is they have a satellite dish. Most people, of course, get their NFL Network via satellite dish.

Anyway, this year, we have three excellent teams playing on Thanksgiving (Patriots, Saints, Jets). Unfortunately, none of them play each other. It’s possible – maybe even probable – that all three games will be blowouts. This will be especially painful for you the viewer because you’ll probably already be watching these games with family members who don’t know jack about football. Thus, you’ll have boring football buttressed by boring conversation.

So what can you do to ameliorate a potentially-frustrating situation? Try dialing in on a matchup within the matchup and just focusing on the pure art form behind it. Here is a compelling matchup within the matchup for each game:

Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins has been fantastic since joining the team midseason after a prolonged contract dispute. Mankins is not a pure mauler, but he delivers one of the better hand punches in football. Suh, of course, IS a pure mauler. The No. 2 overall pick is on his way to the Pro Bowl, which is rare for a rookie defensive tackle. Center Dan Koppen is one of the better help-blockers in the NFL. Koppen’s double-teaming prowess will be needed against the behemoth rookie. (Worth noting: the Patriots will be without starting RG Stephen Neal in this game.)

Saints @ Cowboys

DeMarcus Ware vs. Jermon BushrodWare’s domination of Bushrod last season is what propelled Dallas to a December upset of the then-undefeated Saints. You might think the Saints will not allow Bushrod to go one-on-one against the superstar pass-rusher. However, Sean Payton could be willing to take that gamble if he decides to go with four wide receivers and spread the Cowboys out (which he likely will).

Last year, Revis shutdown Chad Ochocinco in back-to-back weeks (Week 17 and the Wild Card round). Ochocinco has been drawing constant double coverage this season, but many believe that Terrell Owens has emerged as Cincy’s top wideout. The Jets will tell you which receiver they most fear by how they choose to use Revis. Don’t think Ochocinco and Owens won’t take note of which guy is paid the ultimate respect. Whoever draws the Revis matchup will almost certainly be held to under four catches (the guess here is it will be Owens, as the Jets could then implement some of the double-team concepts that have hindered Ochocinco this season).

When Bengals WR Terrell Owens said today that the DB he’ll face Thursday was just an “average” cornerback (though Owens later sort of backtracked ), I was interested to figure out if Owens’ comment was, in fact, accurate.

Taken at face value, Owens’ statement was ridiculous – after all, most of us here consider Revis the best cornerback in the league – but Pro Football Focus told CBSSports.com tonight that Owens’ claim wasn’t that far off the mark.

Sort of.

If you’ll recall, Revis was nursing a bad hamstring early in the season – you’ll probably remember Randy Moss absolutely dominating Revis for a 34-yard TD catch in Week 2 – and at the time, he was playing far below his standards.

“It reflected badly in some horrible numbers when he did play,” PFF wrote in an e-mail. “At one point, he had the poorest yards per catch average of any corner in the league. In the three of the four games where he was thrown at before Week 7 this season, he allowed QBs to have a 100+ QB rating.”

Obviously, those numbers are fairly horrendous. Since Revis’ injury has improved, though, he’s begun to return to his dominant play. He hasn’t allowed a QB rating over 70 since Week 7, and he’s recorded five pass deflections while not giving up a touchdown.

“Overall, Revis' 2010 numbers shake out to something like an average player,” PFF writes. “In that respect T.O. is right, but they're all on an upward trend back towards the '09 player we saw last year.”

The reality, though, is that the Revis who Owens saw on tape earlier in the season is not the same Revis he’ll see Thursday. Which why making those statements today perhaps wasn’t the smartest move Owens could have made.

And for the record, last year, when Owens was with the Bills, Revis (according to the NY Daily News ), held Owens to a combined six catches for 44 yards in two games. Yeah, not so average.

Going back to my point earlier today in Top Ten With a Twist about why we listen to anything that comes out of Terrell Owens’ mouth when he trash-talks other players on much-better teams, I’ll go against what I wrote and tell you what he said today.

While meeting with the Bengals media, Owens – who, to be fair, was called a slouch by Jets CB Darrelle Revis in the offseason – said Revis was “an average” cornerback.

“As far (as) someone being a slouch, that isn’t anything to describe me as a player and the things I bring to the table,” Owens said via Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com.

“Just an average corner to me. Everybody has assessed his abilities as far as what he did last year, shutdown corner, this and that. He did very well last year. But I think I’m looking forward to the challenge just like he’s looking forward to the challenge. I am not going to back down from anyone. I know my skill set. Last year we played I know why I didn’t perform to the best of my abilities. It’s going to be a great game on Thursday.”

OK, so that’s not quite as bad as I originally thought it could be, especially because later in the interview he referred to Revis as, “a great corner, uh, a good corner.”

When told about Owens’ comments, Revis basically said he would see Owens on Thursday.

Part of the reason we all follow sports is for all the insult material. I insult your team. You insult his team. You all insult my intelligence. There’s nothing better than a solid day of watching football and insulting all your buddies and having them insult you right back.

Unless it’s watching other people insult each other. Which happens ALL the time in the NFL. I’m not necessarily talking about players woofing at each other on the field, though that obviously has its place on any top-ten insults list. But I’m talking about the crowd insulting a player, a team insulting one of its own or a player insulting a coach in front of the rest of his teammates (psst, this last one might have occurred this past week).

So, let’s explore the best of what the NFL has to offer as far as metaphorically slapping people in the face. And if you choose to ignore this story, your mother wears Army boots.

10. Jonathan Stewart to Panthers offensive line: We’ll start it off relatively mild. After Stewart rushed for 30 yards on 14 carries vs. the Rams in Week 7, he complained about how his offensive line wasn’t opening enough holes. Sure, Stewart has a rushing average of 3.0, but unless Mike Goodson (220 combined yards in the past two games, 12 yards MORE than Stewart’s season total) is rushing behind a different offensive line, I’m not buying Stewart’s argument.

9. Thirty one NFL teams to Marc Mariani: The rookie, drafted in the seventh round this year as the No. 222 overall pick has been a breakout performer for the Titans. Listen, just because he played at Montana doesn’t mean he can’t hang in the NFL. Look at his stats as a punt returner. He’s third in the NFL with a 17.1 yards per punt average and his 87-yard TD return Sunday was his second score of the year.

8. Carson Palmer to Chad Ochocinco: Palmer has found a new play toy with Terrell Owens – who’s got 12 more catches and four more TDs than Ochocinco. Partially, it’s because Ochocinco, at times, doesn’t run the most technically-proficient routes. Of course, Owens gives up on plays some of the time, but there’s little question Owens has been much more effective this season. And Palmer knows it.

7. John Fox to his bosses/fanbase: I’m not sure this qualifies as an insult because I’m not sure exactly what’s going on in Fox’s head. But here’s what I know: he won’t be back as coach in Carolina next year and he decided not to use backup QB Tony Pike and started Brian St. Pierre last week instead, although St. Pierre was a stay-at-home dad the week before. Pike, a rookie, probably wouldn’t have done much better, but this was an odd move.

5. Michael Vick to dog lovers everywhere: This is an interesting dynamic. If you’re a dog lover, is it impossible to root for Vick? I love dogs, but I think Vick has paid his debt to society and he shouldn’t be scorned for the rest of his life. I also have friends who would like to see Vick ripped limb by limb by one of his former pets, and they always will hope for that moment. Is it me, or do people make a bigger stink about Vick than they do about, say, Ravens WR Donte Stallworth who pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter and then served only 24 days in jail?

4. Dallas Cowboys to Wade Phillips: Weird how, as soon as Jerry Jones pick-slips Phillips, Dallas suddenly plays some of its finest football of the season. Interim coach Jason Garrett probably should get a tiny bit of credit, but why suddenly are the Cowboys on a two-game winning streak? Probably because they all hated Phillips and wanted him to fail and fail hard (I kid, I kid).

3. Terrell Owens to Donovan McNabb: It’s beyond me why Owens would feel it necessary to comment on McNabb’s new contract with the Redskins, asking how the new deal could be justified while Washington and McNabb were taking a beating by the Eagles. McNabb came back and basically asked why a guy playing on a 2-7 (now 2-8) team was criticizing anybody. And it was a good point. A better point: why do we listen to Owens at all when he talks this kind of trash?

2. Vince Young to Jeff Fisher: Just one paraphrased quote when Young departed the Titans locker room Sunday while Fisher was giving his postgame talk said it all. “I’m not walking out on my teammates; I’m walking out on you.” The repercussions of that statement will be felt by Fisher and Young for years to come.

1. NFL owners/players to NFL fans: This one hasn’t happened yet, but it’s been hanging over the entire season like a low-lying storm cloud that’s ready to unleash hell at some point soon. Of course, I mean the impending owner lockout, which would stop all work in the NFL. I have a hard time believing the owners and players won’t work something out before the start of the 2011 season, but it’s entirely possible they could give you the biggest insult of all: no football.

The Bengals were clicking against the Bills. RB Cedric Benson had racked up big yardage in the first half. QB Carson Palmer looked sharper than he has in recent games. Terrell Owens was making catches against his old team. The defense was scoring points for the offense.

And Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick took advantage of a secondary that suddenly had to give significant playing time to Rico Murray and Reggie Nelson, completing 21 of 34 passes for 316 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. The big recipient of Fitzgerald’s explosion was WR Steve Johnson, who caught eight passes for 137 yards and three scores.

All of it equaled a Bills team that turned a 28-7 deficit into a 49-31 victory. It’s the second-straight win for a Buffalo team that had been on the verge of turning the corner for several weeks. The Bills finally got their first win last week against the Lions, and today, in the second half, they dominated what has become a horrendous Bengals team in Cincinnati.

Owens pretty much said it all when he told reporters this after the game: "Let me look you in the eyes and emphasize: we are terrible."

And maybe Chan Gailey’s squad isn’t quite as terrible as most of us thought.